Western Railway Current Affairs

Western Railway renamed Elphinstone Road suburban railway station in Mumbai, Maharashtra to Prabhadevi Station. The station code of Prabhadevi station will be PBHD. The station was initially named after Lord Elphinstone, who was Governor of Bombay Presidency from 1853 to 1860. It has now been renamed in honour of local deity Prabhadevi.

Background

Prabhadevi is name of the area in the vicinity of the station. It also derives its name from the temple of the deity which is 300 years old. In December 2017, Maharashtra legislature had approved Bill to rename Elphinstone Road station, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The central government had given its nod for renaming in May 2017.

Indian Railways is going to introduce 100 additional local train services on its Mumbai suburban network of Western Railway and Central Railway zones.

Out of these 100 services, 32 new services will be introduced on Western Railway while 68 services will be introduced on Central Railway, giving major boost to suburban rail services in Mumbai area.

With these additional services, total suburban services in Mumbai will increase from existing 2983 services to 3083 suburban services. It will benefit around 77 lakh commuters travelling daily over Mumbai suburban network by providing faster commute and reducing congestion.

Key Facts

Western Railway: In all, 32 new services will be introduced in Western Railway. 17 services will be introduced in ‘up’ direction and 15 services will be introduced in ‘down’ direction from 1 October, 2017. Western Railway presently runs 1323 sub-urban services. After addition of these services, total sub-urban services on Western Railway will reach upto 1355.